Award-winning theatre company Bloomshed (Animal Farm, Paradise Lost) brings a bold new take on Jane Austen’s insatiable classic. Written with their signature wit from the depths of the housing crisis, this raucous production flips the table on the Bennett sisters’ quest for love and security through a mercenary marriage.

In the plush ballrooms of high society, Mrs. Bennet sees too well the value of a strategic union. But her five daughters all have ambitions of their own. Jane and Elizabeth want to marry for love (whatever that means). Mary’s stuck in a goth phase, Lydia’s hot for the local militia, and Kitty is well, we don’t need to talk about Kitty. With the cost of living rising, and Mr. Bennet played by a potted monstera, how will the Bennet family hold onto their precarious position on the property ladder?

Playing with Austen’s original, with the romantic comedy, and with the form of reality television, they are looking at the decay of “Love” as a political category. How the institution of marriage emerges not as an artful expression of human passion, but as a calculated ritual of ownership.

For accessible and wheelchair seating, contact: ticketing@darebin.vic.gov.au.